Masonic Odds and Ends

The British Field Marshal, Earl Douglas Haig, was a Grand Deacon of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

King George VI was not only the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, but was also of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

When receiving our Master Mason’s degree, part of the penalty given included the phrase ‘where the tide regularly ebbs and flows twice in every twenty-four hours.’ However, did you know that part of the Gulf of Mexico; St-Michael, Alaska; Do-Son, Indochina; Batavia, Java and Manila in the Philippines the tide ebbs and flows only once in twenty-four hours.

Benjamin Franklin was raised in St. John’s Lodge in Philadelphia on 24th June 1731; became Master in 1732; Grand Master in 1734 and Provincial Grand Master of the Moderns in 1749. His printing press on which he printed and published in 1734 the first Masonic books in American [that of Anderson’s Constitutions] is now in the Smithsonian Institute.

In 1777, when visiting in Paris, Benjamin Franklin was made a member of Loge des Neuf Sovers. He died April 17th, 1790 at the age of 85 years and had lived as a Freemason for sixty years.

In the Museum of Naples are many articles from Pompeii such as gavels, compasses, chisels, squares, also include a tiled mosaic square-shaped altar top consisting of a human skull, level of colored wood and brass; a plumb line, 6-spoked wheel, upright spear and colored cords; symbols similar to the present day Masonic symbols.

Paul Revere was raised at St. Andrew’s Lodge in Boston in January, 1761, served several years as the Worshipful Master, and held the office of Grand Master of Massachusetts from 1794 to 1797.

Rev. Josiah Henson, the hero of Stowes ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ was a member of Mount Moriah Lodge No.4, Dresden, Ontario, and a Prince Hall Masonic Lodge.

Joseph François Perrault B: June 1753, considered to be the father of education in Quebec, was at one time Deputy Grand Master of Lower Canada Grand Lodge.

Bro. James Hoban, a devout Catholic and an ardent Mason, is said to have built the US capital and the White House. Under his leadership, Federal Lodge No.1, Washington, DC was formed by Irish Catholics and Scottish Presbyterians with Bro. Hoban as the first Master.

The ‘World’s Largest Mason’ was Miles Darden, who died in Lexington, Tennessee in 1857 at the age of 58 years. He weighed over 1,000 lbs and was 7’6″ in height with a 76-inch waist. It took seven men to place him in his casket.

George Washington was Master of his lodge in Alexandria when he was inaugurated as President of the United States in 1789. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was also a Mason from New York.

Although it is often alleged Robert Burns was Poet Laureate of Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, there is nothing to show such a title had ever been conferred upon the poet until after his death.

Bro. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was raised to the sublime degree in the Lodge ‘Zur Gekronten Hoffnung’ [Crowned Hope] in 1785

During the US Civil War, the Charter of Hatfield Lodge No.218 in Arkansas was hidden under a fence post in the local graveyard. Its location was forgotten until 1947 when the rotting fence posts were being replaced.

A short note in the Masonic Light, published in Quebec in May, 1948 tell us the application of Adolph Hitler for membership in a Masonic Lodge in Austria was rejected.

Jacques de Molay [1244 – 1314] was Grand Master of the Knights Templar and martyred during the evening of the 18th March 1314.

Bro. James Hoban, a devout Catholic and an ardent Mason, is said to have built the US capital and the White House. Under his leadership, Federal Lodge No.1, Washington, DC was formed by Irish Catholics and Scottish Presbyterians with Bro. Hoban as the first Master.

In 1797, following instructions of Grand Lodge that only one bottle of liquor could be consumed at a meeting, Bro. Richard Boyle, WM of a Dublin Lodge, complied. However, he used a bottle holding 18 quarts!